If you’re a small business owner or manager, chances are, at some point, you’ve been tasked with increasing revenue or growing your referral base. How did you go about accomplishing this?

So often, our efforts miss the mark. Great messaging, wrong audience. Right audience, wrong messaging. Sales and company visibility still low. Visualize a rat just running and running (and running) on a wheel, never reaching his destination, but still so determined; he never gives up. Can you relate to the friendly rat? If yes, you should probably keep reading. Successful outreach can be accomplished through audience profiling, which is the act of defining who your customer or target audience is. If you have a product or service to sell, what is the persona of your target customer or buyer?

The more direct you can be with your message, the less time and money you’ll spend on advertising and blanket marketing efforts. It’s like trying to unlock your front door at night with the porch light off. Do yourself a favor and either leave the light on or get a motion sensor. Profiling your audience serves the same purpose. When you can identify the persona of your target audience, messaging becomes easy because you now know who you’re talking to. You miss the mark less; the key can easily find the lock and open the door for you.

Audience profiling is important because it makes your preferred audience feel special and as though you are serving them tailor-made information about the product or service you’re selling. Targeted ads and outreach, in general, are more elegant, meaningful, and effective when they are highly targeted. The strategies are more precise and, as a result, the audience receiving the message is more likely to act.

How does profiling work? Audience profiling involves the four main principles of segmentation, messaging, engagement, and measurement.

1. Use customer behavior to segment your audience

While demographics such as age, gender, and geographic location are still very relevant when identifying who your target audience is, there are more precise ways to categorize your target audience by using a customer’s unique behavior. These behaviors include factors like education, lifestyle, hobbies, and attitude. If you could create your ideal customer, how would they spend their day? How would you characterize their personality? Who do you want or need to purchase your product or service?

2. Speak to the persona through targeted messaging

Once you’ve identified answers to these types of questions, you can begin creating specific key messages that will resonate with their unique persona. Speak to them directly in your marketing strategy; focus your messaging on the perception that they are listening to you. Build product trust and an affinity toward your brand through persuasive messaging that resonates with your audience, specifically.

3. Seek greatest impact with appropriate engagement

Understand exactly when and where to promote your carefully crafted message to garner the greatest impact with your target audience. In doing so, consider the platforms being used by your audience, including the types of devices they’re using; which social media platforms; what types of events are they attending; when, where, and how often do they browse; what type of content are they consuming; etc.

4. Understand your ROI through measurement

Quantifying the reach and engagement of every campaign not only determines the success of your marketing strategy but also enables businesses to fine-tune their ongoing approach. It is important to set clearly defined targets and goals, so the ROI of your marketing campaigns can be measured and validated, and your approach to your target audience tweaked if necessary.

Don’t be like that poor, exhausted, wheel-turning rat! Explore how you can begin profiling your target audience before your next campaign in order to get the most bang for your buck – and hopefully some added revenue.

If you need some sound advice along the way, don’t hesitate to give your friends at Madak a call!